One oil barrel at a time

A few minutes after my last presentation at the main campus of
Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria, and having a light
lunch with a long time Facebook friend Austin Gege (a South African social activist) who
I was meeting physically for the first time; we were informed
that there was a last minute presentation to close the conference
I was attending. We went back into the auditorium where the last
day of the conference was being held, to find some young lads
setting up a microphone and slide presentation on the projector.
All of a sudden, it dawned on me: ‘the young lads’ were the last
presenters!

The whole auditorium was silent. Everyone was in anticipation of
what these young chaps had to say after all the powerful
presentations earlier in the day. But the 20 minute presentation
from these young people was the most enriching moment of the
whole conference for me. My heart was in my hand, and I was
amazed by the ingenious endeavours and contribution of these high
school graduates to their communities. You could tell from the
passion in their eyes when they took turns to speak about their
social start-up and the pride in their voices about their
achievements. At that moment, I wish I knew half of what they
were talking about when I was much younger.

‘The young lads’ are the Solar Pioneers – “a South African
youth-led initiative of young people between the ages of 18 to 24
years old. Their vision is to see South Africa leading the rest
of the world in the manufacture, distribution and usage of solar
panels in every home at the cheapest possible price, as stated by
Doctor Tshabalala, President - Solar Pioneers. Their dreams are
as laudable and great, like Bill Gate who once had dreamt that
computers would be personally owned by all.

As each of slide pictured their work, different townships across
South Africa flashed in front of my eyes. I could only imagine a
scenario where more than half of our high school leftovers (who
couldn't secure admission into higher institutions) are equipped
with solar panel manufacturing skills supported by the government
to produce cheap and reliable sources of energy to the countless
communities who go daily without electric supply in Nigeria.

The Solar Pioneers invented the first wooden solar panel in South
Africa which is 100% locally made. I can imagine my parents’
house in Lagos pulling out of the national electricity grid and
running mainly on renewable energy, such as solar. The epileptic
power supply in Nigeria won't remain a major problem to our
development if only we can harness other sources of renewable
clean energy and care more about the future of the coming
generations.

Interestingly, the strategies and activities of these young chaps
work on the combination of awareness, education and real world
business model to advocacy. They believe in change through
education and empowerment training in their bid to change the
status quo in favour of sustainable development in a country
that's among the highest polluters of the environment in the
world. More importantly, they are making it cheaper and easier
for people to adapt to the change. The Solar Pioneers through
their flagship camp programme shall empower 100 high school
students through a 3 weeks training on how to construct and
install solar panels. Commercial and Art students will make up
20% of the students, while the remaining 80% students will come
from science related classes as a way to balance the knowledge
gap. Worthy of note is the support provided by the Centre for
Energy and Electric Power, Tshwane University of Technology (TUT
CEEP).

I left the auditorium in deep thinking and ruminating on how we
can power up Africa with the abundance of sunlight. How can we
get it freely every day? How can we harness other sustainable
sources of clean energy to develop our continent?? Yes, I know
there is not one fit-all-solution strategy that will work for
Africa. However, Brain Tracy's, Success is a Journey says,
'one oil barrel at a time.' If we cannot change the world at
once, we can start small in our own corner of the world and let
our light shine through to others, just as the Solar Pioneers let
their light shine to us all who were in that auditorium.